Inside the box

by haywardhelen

‘They don’t work, you know’. So says my son, sounding older than his sixteen years. He struggles to find three hundred words to fill an A4 page, and is adamant that his opinion on the origins of World War One isn’t worth expressing. And yet he cuts down to size my vegetable box scheme do-gooding in five whittling words.

‘But you know they don’t work’, he says, pushing his index finger on the computer button as the screen flickers awake in the corner of our kitchen, and then heads to the fridge for the first of many apples for the evening. ‘They’re always full of vegetables you don’t want’, he adds, rubbing it in.

‘Did you get any kale?’ he asks, a few minutes later, munching through his apple with practiced swipes.’ ‘Actually, no. But I got a lot of bok choy and spinach’. ‘You see’, he says, typing in his password and placing his apple stalk – his stomach must be an orchard by now – almost daintily down on the table.

A few weeks ago I signed up for four $55 boxes of vegetables as a trial. I’d received similar boxes in the past – once for three years and more recently for a few months. The a la carte boxes were wonderful, especially as I could pay over the phone. But the surprise cash only boxes were weirdly complicated – arranging a time for delivery when I was home, returning boxes and paying with real money. I struggled to have cash to hand for a surprise box of vegetables at 5pm every Wednesday afternoon.

But now, I tell myself, things are different. My children are through the food fussy years. Even my husband quite likes salad, if I dress it well. Besides buying direct from the grower appeals to me at various levels. Perhaps, I tell myself, I’ll enjoy the surprise element this time round.

‘What’s this?’ I ask my daughter later the same day, in a bad Jamie Oliver impersonation. ‘A white carrot’, offers my husband, passing hopefully through the kitchen, hoping some food might be on offer. ‘A turnip’, suggests my son, his back to us and his face to the screen. ‘No idea’, pipes up my daughter, unamused. ‘Wrong’, I reply, ‘it’s a swede’. ‘And what are you going to cook with that?’ asks my daughter, suspicious. ‘Oh, nothing much’, I say airily, thumbing through Stephanie Alexander for ideas.

There is a certain moment – or is it a fine line – after which teenagers grow so big that they take up the same mental and physical space as an adult. Two children who it seems only yesterday complied and mostly agreed with me, today behave more like flat-mates than children. They still make demands and act dependently – just not all of the time. On the other hand their bullshit detectors are incredibly finely tuned. Nothing gets past them – carbon trading schemes, teachers’ attempts to dress coolly, benign questions about their school day, vegetable box schemes.

The critical voice in my head that I spend so much of my day outfoxing, or just ignoring, is turned up high the minute my kids get home from school. Dumping their bags in the hall, filtering into the kitchen in search of a snack, moaning about homework and dropping unwelcome mail on the kitchen table – within minutes they are on my case.

Years ago, when my kids were in primary school, I joined the school’s Sustainability Committee. Of the five other members, three were convinced that the key to cleaning up the planet lies in the next generation. I disagreed. Why would our children be motivated to clean up the mess of generations before them? Won’t they have enough challenges of their own without inheriting a To Do list from us?

The headmistress of the school chaired this particular committee. One morning she took me aside after our monthly meeting – held in an old unheated wooden shed. ‘You know, Helen, you won’t get anywhere if you continue to push your trolley’. I got what she was getting at. If you want things to change, she was saying, you have to be clever about it. You can’t go round browbeating people into removing junk food from the tuckshop and turning down thermostats in classrooms. That’s just not how change works, she was saying. She was right, of course. (But then again, when her contract came to an end she left the school and, within months, suffered a major stroke.)

But none of this helps me decide how to cook the produce from my fortnightly box of vegetables. Pak choy, well that’s easy. Lunch for me. Leeks, again easy – I cook them all the time. Ditto carrots. Cabbage, perhaps, if cooked slowly with butter and oil until it’s translucent and loses all bitterness. Parsnips, hmm. I know – roasted or grated and hidden in Bolognese sauce . Two large swathes of silverbeet. More lunch for me and, if chopped finely into risotto, a small amount for my family. Lemongrass – absolutely no idea. Pass. Russet Burbank potatoes, again easy. And twelve feijoia? The feijoia defeat me, sitting on a plate for days until brown spots appear to flag my neglect of them.

The following day I visit the supermarket to buy sardines for our dog, cleaning supplies – and, yes, a few of the vegetables that my virtuous box scheme has overlooked. Brushing through the turnstile with my plastic basket, I walk past island after island of fruit and vegetables stacked high with out-of-season fruit and vegetables. A woman around my age is piling her trolley with fruit and vegetables, clearly in a rush. For a moment I envy her. She doesn’t care about the origins of her food, or how much various farmers in the area have been paid. Or perhaps she does, but has discounted this in the name of convenience, common sense and budget.

‘Be the change you want to see’, says Michael Pollan, Peter Singer, George Monbiot and a whole environmental movement after them. ‘Change starts small’, writes Michael Pollan in Cook. ‘It starts in the kitchen, and in the choices we make about the food we buy.’ I find this idea persuasive, seductive even. But then again I’m middle-class, educated and can afford to make clear choices. I like to feel that my efforts in the kitchen – and forages for food – are worthwhile. And this is the fantasy that my son’s casual comment punctures so entirely.

4 Comments to “Inside the box”

I have a friend who is also a very conscience food buyer/ food grower and the very fact that she is doing it has made me think about what I am doing (Which is, like the lady you saw in the supermarket convenience and budget and ‘set in ways’ and rushing shopping) I’d like to think it is because my children are the age that they are but my friend’s children are the same age and they eat all kinds of wonderful locally sourced veggies. I believe that making the small changes yourself impacts on those around you without even realising it – you never know who is learning from you. I really hope I can be a little more proactive and start ‘doing this’ rather than considering it, it seems like a massive change. You have definitely given me food for thought 🙂

Thanks for this. I’m really not wanting to put anyone on the spot about food. But I do think that all our talk about choice is fudging the issue somewhat. Without being hardline, I have come to feel that it’s the small local acts that slowly add up. Besides it beats downright pessimism!

Sorry, Helen. Tend to agree with Alex…Done the box scheme once too. Had no idea what to do with some of the produce and there was never enough of the things we like. None of us likes silverbeet and there was never enough fruit or Asian greens:-) At least in Melbourne, you can buy local and seasonal produce. Our green grocer is fantastic (the place of origin of the produce is indicated and often cooking ideas are given) and many of the farmer’s markets are great too.